Astronomical Myths Part 17

Fra Mauro, a religious cosmographer of the fifteenth century, gives on the east side of a map of the world a representation which shows us that at that epoch the "garden of delights" had become very barren. It is a vast plain, on which we see Jehovah and the first human couple, with a circular rampart surrounding it. The four rivers flow out of it by bifurcating. An angel protects the princ.i.p.al gate, which cannot be reached but by crossing barren mountains.

The cosmographical map of Gervais, dedicated to the Emperor Otho IV., shows the terrestrial paradise in the centre of the earth, which is square, and is situated in the midst of the seas. Adam and Eve appear in consultation.

The map of the world prepared by Andreas Bianco, in the fifteenth century, represents Eden, Adam and Eve, and the tree of life. On the left, on a peninsula, are seen the reprobated people of Gog and Magog, who are to accompany Antichrist. Alexander is also represented there, but without apparent reason. The paradisaical peninsula has a building on it with this inscription, "Ospitius Macarii."

Formalconi says, on this subject, that a certain Macarius lives near paradise, who is a witness to all that the author states, and as Bianco has indicated, his cell was close to the gates of paradise.

This legend has reference to the pilgrims of St. Macarius, a tradition that was spread on the return of the Crusaders, of three monks who undertook a voyage to discover the point where the earth and heaven meet, that is to say, the place of the terrestrial paradise. The map of Rudimentum, a vast compilation published at Lubeck in 1475 by the Dominican Brocard, represents the terrestrial paradise surrounded by walls, but it is less sterile that in the last picture, as may be seen on the next page.

In the year 1503, when Varthema, the adventurous Bolognian, went to the Indies by the route of Palestine and Syria, he was shown the evil-reputed house which Cain dwelt in, which was not far from the terrestrial paradise. Master Gilius, the learned naturalist who travelled at the expense of Francis I., had the same satisfaction. The simple faith of our ancestors had no hesitation in accepting such archaeology.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 54.--THE PARADISE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.]

The most curious and interesting of all attempts to discover the situation of paradise was that made half unconsciously by Columbus when he first found the American sh.o.r.e.

In his third voyage, when for the first time he reached the main land, he was persuaded not only that he had arrived at the extremity of Asia, but that he could not be far from the position of paradise. The Orinoco seemed to be one of those four great rivers which, according to tradition, came out of the garden inhabited by our first parents, and his hopes were supported by the fragrant breezes that blew from the beautiful forests on its banks. This, he thought, was but the entrance to the celestial dwelling-place, and if he had dared--if a religious fear had not held back him who had risked everything amidst the elements and amongst men, he would have liked to push forward to where he might hope to find the celestial boundaries of the world, and, a little further, to have bathed his eyes, with profound humility, in the light of the flaming swords which were wielded by two seraphim before the gate of Eden.

He thus expresses himself on this subject in his letter to one of the monarchs of Spain, dated Hayti, October, 1498. "The Holy Scriptures attest that the Lord created paradise, and placed in it the tree of life, and made the four great rivers of the earth to pa.s.s out of it, the Ganges of India, the Tigris, the Euphrates (pa.s.sing from the mountains to form Mesopotamia, and ending in Persia), and the Nile, which rises in Ethiopia and goes to the Sea of Alexander. I cannot, nor have been ever able to find in the books of the Latins or Greeks anything authentic on the site of this terrestrial paradise, nor do I see anything more certain in the maps of the world. Some place it at the source of the Nile, in Ethiopia; but the travellers who have pa.s.sed through those countries have not found either in the mildness of the climate or in the elevation of the site towards heaven anything that could lead to the presumption that paradise was there, and that the waters of the Deluge were unable to reach it or cover it. Several pagans have written for the purpose of proving it was in the Fortunate Isles, which are the Canaries. St. Isidore, Bede, and Strabo, St. Ambrosius, Scotus, and all judicious theologians affirm with one accord that paradise was in the East. It is from thence only that the enormous quant.i.ty of water can come, seeing that the course of the rivers is extremely long; and these waters (of paradise) arrive here, where I am, and form a lake. There are great signs here of the neighbourhood of the terrestrial paradise, for the site is entirely conformable to the opinion of the saints and judicious theologians. The climate is of admirable mildness. I believe that if I pa.s.sed beneath the equinoctial line, and arrived at the highest point of which I have spoken, I should find a milder temperature, and a change in the stars and the waters; not that I believe that the point where the greatest height is situated is navigable, or even that there is water there, or that one could reach it, but I am convinced that _there_ is the terrestrial paradise, where no one can come except by the will of G.o.d."

In the opinion of this ill.u.s.trious navigator the earth had the form of a pear, and its surface kept rising towards the east, indicated by the point of the fruit. It was there that he supposed might be found the garden where ancient tradition imagined the creation of the first human couple was accomplished.

We can scarcely think without astonishment of the great amount of darkness that obscured scientific knowledge, when this great man appeared on the scene of the world, nor of the rapidity with which the obscurity and vagueness of ideas were dissipated almost immediately after his marvellous discoveries. Scarcely had a half century elapsed after his death, than all the geographical fables of the middle ages did no more than excite smiles of incredulity, although during his life the universal opinion was not much advanced upon the times of the famous knight John of Mandeville, who wrote gravely as follows:--

"No mortal man can go to or approach this paradise. By land no one can go there on account of savage beasts which are in the deserts, and because of mountains and rocks that cannot be pa.s.sed over, and dark places without number; nor can one go there any better by sea; the water rushes so wildly, it comes in so great waves, that no vessel dare sail against them. The water is so rapid, and makes so great a noise and tempest, that no one can hear however loud he is spoken to, and so when some great men with good courage have attempted several times to go by this river to paradise, in large companies, they have never been able to accomplish their journey. On the contrary, many have died with fatigue in swimming against the watery waves. Many others have become blind, others have become deaf by the noise of the water, and others have been suffocated and lost in the waves, so that no mortal man can approach it except by the special grace of G.o.d."

With one notable exception, no attempts have been made of late years to solve such a question. That exception is by the n.o.ble and indefatigable Livingstone, who declared his conviction to Sir Roderick Murchison, in a letter published in the _Athenaeum_, that paradise was situated somewhere near the sources of the Nile.

Those generally who now seek an answer to the question of the birthplace of the human race do not call it paradise.

Since man is here, and there was a time quite recent, geologically speaking, when he was not, there must have been some actual locality on the earth's surface where he was first a man. Whether we have, or even can hope to have, enough information to indicate where that locality was situated, is a matter of doubt. We have not at present. Those who have attended most to the subject appear to think some island the most probable locality, but it is quite conjectural.

The name "Paradise" appears to have been derived from the Persian, in which it means a garden; similarly derived words express the same idea in other languages; as in the Hebrew _pardes_, in the Arabian _firdaus_, in the Syriac _pardiso_, and in the Armenian _partes_. It has been thought that the Persian word itself is derived from the Sanscrit _pradesa_, or _paradesa_, which means a circle, a country, or strange region; which, though near enough as to sound, does not quite agree as to meaning. "Eden" is from a Hebrew root meaning delights.

CHAPTER XII.

ECLIPSES AND COMETS.

We have seen in the earlier chapters on the systems of the ancients and their ideas of the world how everything was once supposed to have exclusive reference to man, and how he considered himself not only chief of animate objects, but that his own city was the centre of the material world, and his own world the centre of the material universe; that the sun was made to s.h.i.+ne, as well as the moon and stars, for his benefit; and that, were it not for him they would have no reason for existence.

And we have seen how, step by step, these illusions have been dispelled, and he has learnt to appreciate his own littleness in proportion as he has realised the immensity of the universe of which he forms part.

If such has been his history, and such his former ideas on the regular parts, as we may call them, of nature, much more have similar ideas been developed in relation to those other phenomena which, coming at such long intervals, have not been recognised by him as periodic, but have seemed to have some relation to mundane affairs, often of the smallest consequence. Such are eclipses of the sun and moon, comets, shooting-stars, and meteors. Among the less instructed of men, even when astronomers of the same age and nation knew their real nature, eclipses have always been looked upon as something ominous of evil.

Among the ancient nations people used to come to the a.s.sistance of the moon, by making a confused noise with all kinds of instruments, when it was eclipsed. It is even done now in Persia and some parts of China, where they fancy that the moon is fighting with a great dragon, and they think the noise will make him loose his hold and take to flight. Among the East Indians they have the same belief that when the sun and the moon are eclipsed, a dragon is seizing them, and astronomers who go there to observe eclipses are troubled by the fears of their native attendants, and by their endeavours to get into the water as the best place under the circ.u.mstances. In America the idea is that the sun and moon are tired when they are eclipsed. But the more refined Greeks believed for a long time that the moon was bewitched, and that the magicians made it descend from heaven, to put into the herbs a certain maleficent froth. Perhaps the idea of the Dragon arose from the ancient custom of calling the places in the heavens at which the eclipses of the moon took place the head and tail of the Dragon.

In ancient history we have many curious instances of the very critical influence that eclipses have had, especially in the case of events in a campaign, where it was thought unfavourable to some projected attempt.

Thus an eclipse of the moon was the original cause of the death of the Athenian general Nicias. Just at a critical juncture, when he was about to depart from the harbour of Syracuse, the eclipse filled him and his whole army with dismay. The result of his terror was that he delayed the departure of his fleet, and the Athenian army was cut in pieces and destroyed, and Nicias lost his liberty and life.

Plutarch says they could understand well enough the cause of the eclipse of the sun by the interposition of the moon, but they could not imagine by the opposition of what body the moon itself could be eclipsed.

One of the most famous eclipses of antiquity was that of Thales, recorded by Herodotus, who says:--"The Lydians and the Medes were at war for five consecutive years. Now while the war was sustained on both sides with equal chance, in the sixth year, one day when the armies were in battle array, it happened that in the midst of the combat the day suddenly changed into night. Thales of Miletus had predicted this phenomenon to the Ionians, and had pointed out precisely that very year as the one in which it would take place. The Lydians and Medes, seeing the night succeeding suddenly to the day, put an end to the combat, and only cared to establish peace."

Another notable eclipse is that related by Diodorus Siculus. It was a total eclipse of the sun, which took place while Agathocles, fleeing from the port of Syracuse, where he was blockaded by the Carthaginians, was hastening to gain the coast of Africa. "When Agathocles was already surrounded by the enemy, night came on, and he escaped contrary to all hope. On the day following so complete an eclipse of the sun took place that it seemed altogether night, for the stars shone out in all places.

The soldiers therefore of Agathocles, persuaded that the G.o.ds were intending them some misfortune, were in the greatest perturbation about the future. Agathocles was equal to the occasion. When disembarked in Africa, where, in spite of all his fine words, he was unable to rea.s.sure his soldiers, whom the eclipse of the sun had frightened, he changed his tactics, and pretending to understand the prodigy, "I grant, comrades,"

he said, "that had we perceived this, eclipse before our embarkation we should indeed have been in a critical situation, but now that we have seen it after our departure, and as it always signifies a change in the present state of affairs, it follows that our circ.u.mstances, which were very bad in Sicily, are about to amend, while we shall indubitably ruin those of the Carthaginians, which have been hitherto so flouris.h.i.+ng."

We are reminded by this of the story of Pericles, who, when ready to set sail with his fleet on a great expedition, saw himself stopped by a similar phenomenon. He spread his mantle over the eyes of the pilot, whom fear had prevented acting, and asked him if that was any sign of misfortune, when the pilot answered in the negative. "What misfortune then do you suppose," said he, "is presaged by the body that hides the sun, which differs from this in nothing but being larger?"

With reference to these eclipses, when their locality and approximate date is known, astronomy comes to the a.s.sistance of history, and can supply the exact day, and even hour, of the occurrence. For the eclipses depend on the motions of the moon, and just as astronomers can calculate both the time and the path of a solar eclipse in the future, so they can for the past. If then the eclipses are calculated back to the epoch when the particular one is recorded, it can be easily ascertained which one it was that about that time pa.s.sed over the spot at which it was observed, and as soon as the particular eclipse is fixed upon, it may be told at what hour it would be seen.

Thus the eclipse of Thales has been a.s.signed by different authors to various dates, between the 1st of October, 583 B.C., and the 3rd of February, 626 B.C. The only eclipse of the sun that is suitable between those dates has been found by the Astronomer-Royal to be that which would happen in Lydia on the 28th of May, 585 B.C., which must therefore be the date of the event.

So of the eclipse of Agathocles, M. Delaunay has fixed its date to the 15th August, 310 B.C.

In later days, when Christopher Columbus had to deal with the ignorant people of America, the same kind of story was repeated. He found himself reduced to famine by the inhabitants of the country, who kept him and his companions prisoners; and being aware of the approach of the eclipse, he menaced them with bringing upon them great misfortunes, and depriving them of the light of the moon, if they did not instantly bring him provisions. They cared little for his menaces at first; but as soon as they saw the moon disappear, they ran to him with abundance of victuals, and implored pardon of the conqueror. This was on the 1st of March, 1504, a date which may be tested by the modern tables of the moon, and Columbus's account proved to be correct. The eclipse was indeed recorded in other places by various observers.

Eclipses in their natural aspect have thus had considerable influence on the vulgar, who knew nothing of their cause. This of course was the state with all in the early ages, and it is interesting to trace the gradual progress from their being quite unexpected to their being predicted.

It is very probable, if not certain, that their recurrence in the case of the moon at least was recognised long before their nature was understood.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XIII.--CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE ECLIPSE OF THE MOON.]

Among the Chinese they were long calculated, and, in fact, it is thought by some that they have pretended to a greater antiquity by calculating backwards, and recording as observed eclipses those which happened before they understood or noticed them. It seems, however, authenticated that they did in the year 2169 B.C. observe an eclipse of the sun, and that at that date they were in the habit of predicting them. For this particular eclipse is said to have cost several of the astronomers their lives, as they had not calculated it rightly. As the lives of princes were supposed to be dependent on these eclipses, it became high treason to expose them to such a danger without forewarning them. They paid more attention to the eclipses of the sun than of the moon.

Among the Babylonians the eclipses of the moon were observed from a very early date, and numerous records of them are contained in the Observations of Bel in Sargon's library, the tablets of which have lately been discovered. In the older portion they only record that on the 14th day of such and such a (lunar) month an eclipse takes place, and state in what watch it begins, and when it ends. In a later portion the observations were more precise, and the descriptions of the eclipse more accurate. Long before 1700 B.C. the discovery of the lunar cycle of 223 lunar months had been made, and by means of it they were able to state of each lunar eclipse, that it was either "according to calculation" or "contrary to calculation."

They dealt also with solar eclipses, and tried to trace on a sphere the path they would take on the earth. Accordingly, like the eclipses of the moon, these too were spoken of as happening either "according to calculation" or "contrary to calculation." "In a report sent in to one of the later kings of a.s.syria by the state astronomer, Abil Islar states that a watch had been kept on the 28th, 29th, and 30th of Sivan, or May, for an eclipse of the sun, which did not, however, take place after all.

The shadow, it is clear, must have fallen outside the field of observation." Besides the more ordinary kind of solar eclipses, mention is made in the Observations of Bel of annular eclipses which, strangely enough, are seldom alluded to by cla.s.sical writers.

A record of a later eclipse has been found by Sir Henry Rawlinson on one of the Nineveh Tablets. This occurred near that city in B.C. 763, and from the character of the inscription it may be inferred that it was a rare occurrence with them, indeed that it was nearly, if not quite, a total eclipse. This has an especial interest as being the earliest that we have any approximate date for.

It is possible that the remarkable phenomenon, alluded to by the prophet Isaiah, of the shadow going backwards ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz, may be really a record of an eclipse of the sun, such as astronomy proves to have occurred at Jerusalem in the year 689 B.C.

We have very little notice of the calculation of eclipses by the Egyptians; all that is told us is more or less fabulous. Thus Diogenes Laertius says that they reckoned that during a period of 48,863 years, 373 eclipses of the sun and 832 eclipses of the moon had occurred, which is far fewer than the right number for so long a time, and which, of course, has no basis in fact.

Among the Greeks, Anaxagoras was the first who entertained clear ideas about the nature of eclipses; and it was from him that Pericles learnt their harmlessness.

Plutarch relates that Helicon of Cyzicus predicted an eclipse of the sun to Dionysius of Syracuse, and received as a reward a talent of silver.

Livy records an eclipse of the sun as having taken place on the 11th of Quintilis, which corresponds to the 11th of July. It happened during the Appollinarian games, 190 B.C.

The same author tells us of an eclipse of the moon that was predicted by one Gallus, a tribune of the second legion, on the eve of the battle of Pydna--a prediction which was duly fulfilled on the following night. The fact of its having been foretold quieted the superst.i.tious fears of the soldiers, and gave them a very high opinion of Gallus. Other authors, among them Cicero, do not give so flattering a story, but state that Gallus's part consisted only in explaining the cause of the eclipse after it had happened. The date of this eclipse was the 3rd of September, 168 B.C.

Ennius, writing towards the end of the second century B.C., describes an eclipse which was said to have happened nearly two hundred years before (404, B.C.), in the following remarkable words:--"On the nones of July the moon pa.s.sed over the sun, and there was night." Aristarchus, three centuries before Christ, understood and explained the nature of eclipses; but the chief of the ancient authors upon this subject was Hipparchus. He and his disciples were able to predict eclipses with considerable accuracy, both as to their time and duration. Geminus and Cleomedes were two other writers, somewhat later, who explained and predicted eclipses. In later times regular tables were drawn up, showing when the eclipses would happen. One that Ptolemy was the author of was founded on data derived from ancient observers--Callipus, Democritus, Eudoxus, Hipparchus--aided by his own calculations. After the days of Ptolemy the knowledge of the eclipses advanced _pari pa.s.su_ with the advance of astronomy generally. So long as astronomy itself was empirical, the time of the return of an eclipse was only reckoned by the intervals that had elapsed during the same portion of previous cycles; but after the discovery of elliptic orbits and the force of gravitation the whole motion of the moon could be calculated with as great accuracy as any other astronomical phenomenon.